I absolutely loathe iOS 26

[auxbuss]

Where have you been? Just do a search on this website or any other Mac site and there have been lots of discussions, how the iPhone is boring, iOS is boring etc. As the saying goes, be careful what you ask for, because you just might get it and it may not be what you wanted.

But boring is fine for a UI, which is just an interface. Do people sit in their car, stare at the dashboard, and ponder changing their car because they're bored of the same old knobs and dials? Nope, they just drive the thing. If they want extras, they add them.

There's a distinction we should keep in mind between the UI and the functions iOS provides. Functions are going to come and go, depending on technological advances and changes. But in the interface is just an entry point to those. The interface itself should evolve with each iteration into something better, as series of small steps – which are easily reversible. But that's not what has happened here.

 

[bktech11]

Yup not even going to sniff this until 26.1. Sticking with 18 for now.

 

[adrianlondon]

Yup not even going to sniff this until 26.1. Sticking with 18 for now.

You're gonna be in for a shock whenever you upgrade; might as well get it over and done with 😁

 

[ThePinkChameleon]

Are you using the first (default) clock font? That's the only one that stretches.

I was having the same issue where I couldn’t stretch down the clock size. Even with setting the default apple font. Today I tried it again by putting it into customize mode and then tapped on the screen and suddenly the tab to pull down showed up….really strange out of no where and now I have an oversized clock on my lock screen lol

 

[ProbablyDylan]

Where have you been? Just do a search on this website or any other Mac site and there have been lots of discussions, how the iPhone is boring, iOS is boring etc. As the saying goes, be careful what you ask for, because you just might get it and it may not be what you wanted.

You know what, I could believe that this is the effect of some kind of monkey's paw. Question becomes who wasted a wish on making iOS interesting?

 

[I7guy]

The worst design in Apple’s history. It feels like Apple has forgotten what makes the iPhone an iPhone: certainty, elegance, simplicity, perfection.

It doesn’t to me. I like this update.

Instead, we now have an operating system that is increasingly confusing, cartoonish, and overloaded with settings.

People wanted options. They got them. This comment is a perfect example of notmplease 100% of the people all the time.

With inconsistent elements. For example, in Mail, there are round buttons, capsule-shaped buttons, and rounded squares—all on the same line. Three different shapes just to flag an email, delete it, or mark it as read.

I just use the mail application and didn’t analyze the buttons. I figured out what to do in the blink of an eye.

It’s adding noise, mental fatigue, and distraction to a system that used to work well.

I don’t find that.

Did users ask for changes? I don’t think any user was asking for changes. What people ask from Apple is what it once knew how to do: think more deeply than anyone else to solve problems—like Apple Pay, Face ID, etc.

Some people ask for changes and some just expect them to happen with each new iteration of iOS.

Guys, Liquid Glass was just one of many internal Apple projects that usually end up being discarded. The real reason why such garbage got approved is because, after the failure of Apple Intelligence and Siri, there was nothing new for iOS 26.

Proof or conjecture?

The failure of AI has been covered up with a new look.

No it hasn’t. But ymmv.

 

[HouseLannister]

It doesn’t to me. I like this update.

And we need to stop shaming the masochists for their neurodiversity!

 

[Macalway]

It's hilarious how off this thing is.

Smart to make the clock barely readable. Kudos

 

[AsherN]

What I don’t get is how they managed to get an approval to prioritise a new GUI. They do have other parts and a bit of a backlog of things that I would have considered more important to fix.

It’s not like the old GUI was bad and looked dated

I agree with you. But have you read all the complaining online on how the GUI was "stale" and Apple was not "innovating"?

By now, it's a glass rectangle with buttons. How much change do you want?

 

[I7guy]

What I don’t get is how they managed to get an approval to prioritise a new GUI. They do have other parts and a bit of a backlog of things that I would have considered more important to fix.

It’s not like the old GUI was bad and looked dated

The 20th anniversary of the iPhone is coming up. This new design language maybe part of the anniversary edition. Love or not, it’s here to stay for a few years.

 

[Reverend Benny]

I agree with you. But have you read all the complaining online on how the GUI was "stale" and Apple was not "innovating"?

By now, it's a glass rectangle with buttons. How much change do you want?

Yea, its lots of complaining going on, both that they don't innovate and sometimes seem to innovate, but not in the direction that people want. I'm a bit oldschool and like a clean GUI. And a clean GUI generally means that its fast cuz you don't need that much GPU power to run animations or glossy animations...

BUT.....I have to say after using iOS26 on a few devices that it isn't as bad as I thought. Sure the old man in me want it to be as clean as iOS 18. But I can live with this and as I see it I don't have much of an option.

It does seem to run fine on older devices too so Apple has done a good job.

And on the topic innovation. If people scratched a bit more on the surface rather than moaning, read about all the news the OS has and compare to other versions, most would agree that there is loads of innovation going on.

 

[applegeek97]

Was you not around for iOS 7?

I mean, iOS 7 looking pretty tempting right now

 

[HouseLannister]

most would agree that there is loads of innovation going on.

Yep... they stole Call Screening from the Pixel (but it's not as good). And they stole Circle to Search from the Pixel (but it's not as good). And.... ummm... they brought back a missing button in Photos? Bursting with innovation!

 

[velemar1]

Agree, I immediately downgraded back to iOS 18. Liquid glass is objectively ugly and tacky.

 

[I7guy]

Yep... they stole Call Screening from the Pixel (but it's not as good). And they stole Circle to Search from the Pixel (but it's not as good). And.... ummm... they brought back a missing button in Photos?

The “Who took ideas from who” is a meme at this point.

 

[Jakimo]

Love it! It's pretty amusing to me how intolerant people are. It's just a GUI - and there's so much more to iOS 26 past the visuals..

Oh well, there are obviously many people who really don't like it. With that in mind, it would be great if Apple offered two or three distinctive visual styles to choose from. I'd love a minimalist option, simple and super fast. But I've enjoyed Liquid Glass just fine; it works and has some entertainment value.

 

[turbineseaplane]

It's just a GUI

That's the whole enchilada on a device like this.

 

[maflynn]

Love it! It's pretty amusing to me how intolerant people are. It's just a GUI - and there's so much more to iOS 26 past the visuals..

Intolerant? Just a GUI?

The User Interface is the mechanism in how we the users interact with the device. If the gui is hard to read, hard to navigate, lacking in ways that makes the user struggle to do tasks that were otherwise easy or simple in the prior version, that's not intolerant. That's poor design.

Back during the pre-osx times, there was something called the Human Interface Guidelines (HIG). Clearly Apple forgot about that, as having monochromatic transparent icons is harder to use then opaque colored ones.

“You’ve got to start with the customer experience and work backwards to the technology.” — Steve Jobs 1997

Do you think this is a good customer experience?

 

[abromber]

I appreciate all the different opinions on the GUI. However, I find I am speaking to my devices more often -- to give instructions and ask questions, so I am interested in voice recognition and voice control of the OS and apps. I find dictation and voice recognition seems to work pretty well in MacOS but not so great in iOS. How is this functionality in the new system?

 

[JackANSI]

I'm not talking about glitches

For the love of tim cook, how did apple ever think that monochrome transparent icons is an improvement over colored ones. The one on the left is virtually unusable.
View attachment 2551366

Only explanation I can think of without reading pages of text is: this implementation of the design language is going to be one of many unifying strokes for an OS that is going to be geared more toward Augmented Reality, than on-screen. I'd want to see through the icons if I was wearing this and trying to navigate the real world. This, isn't that device, so it feels like a real 'miss'.

That said, I disliked it on my phone and find the usability to be greatly reduced. I rolled back to 18.7.

 

[turbineseaplane]

Only explanation I can think of without reading pages of text is: this implementation of the design language is going to be one of many unifying strokes for an OS that is going to be geared more toward Augmented Reality, than on-screen. I'd want to see through the icons if I was wearing this and trying to navigate the real world. This, isn't that device, so it feels like a real 'miss'.

That said, I disliked it on my phone and find the usability to be greatly reduced. I rolled back to 18.7.

Unifying an OS to the point where it's inappropriate for some of the devices using it is ... totally insane.

(not saying you made that call... referring to Apple here)

 

[turbineseaplane]

Intolerant? Just a GUI?

The User Interface is the mechanism in how we the users interact with the device. If the gui is hard to read, hard to navigate, lacking in ways that makes the user struggle to do tasks that were otherwise easy or simple in the prior version, that's not intolerant. That's poor design.

Back during the pre-osx times, there was something called the Human Interface Guidelines (HIG). Clearly Apple forgot about that, as having monochromatic transparent icons is harder to use then opaque colored ones.

“You’ve got to start with the customer experience and work backwards to the technology.” — Steve Jobs 1997

Do you think this is a good customer experience?
View attachment 2551781

Honestly, at the point of having monochromatic transparent icons, they might as well just give me a text list like the Minimal Phone & Light Phone. It would be more usable and a better use of space.

 

[cyberpunk_ber]

Captured these today.

Unapologetically stunning.

 

[Jakimo]

Intolerant? Just a GUI?

The User Interface is the mechanism in how we the users interact with the device. If the gui is hard to read, hard to navigate, lacking in ways that makes the user struggle to do tasks that were otherwise easy or simple in the prior version, that's not intolerant. That's poor design.

Back during the pre-osx times, there was something called the Human Interface Guidelines (HIG). Clearly Apple forgot about that, as having monochromatic transparent icons is harder to use then opaque colored ones.

“You’ve got to start with the customer experience and work backwards to the technology.” — Steve Jobs 1997

Do you think this is a good customer experience?
View attachment 2551781

I loved the HIG, what a great start to a solid design/engineer company

Yah, mine is just fine. I think it's great you're upset and want better changes ahead! Whatever drives better roadmaps is something I can get on board with

I really just don't have much of an issue with it, and no - I don't use translucent icons. I fatten them up and get rid of app names, and it's quite viewable and usable

It there room for improvements? Are some of those obvious? Yep, I'd say so.. but it's not a big deal. I love great design, and can imagine better ways to do things.. but this works just fine, and it's nice to have a change

 

[turbineseaplane]

Captured these today.


View attachment 2551792



View attachment 2551793

Unapologetically stunning.

This is just such crap.
I truly can't believe they pushed this out like this.

This entire concept (UI with all this translucency) is wholly inappropriate for a device like a phone or a tablet.

It was made for VisionOS and the Vision Pro ... that's where it should stay.